[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 109 (Wednesday, June 7, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30076-30078]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-13850]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Intent To Repay to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of
Education Funds Recovered as a Result of a Final Audit Determination
AGENCY: Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of intent to award grantback funds.
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SUMMARY: Under section 459 of the General Education Provisions Act
(GEPA), the U.S. Secretary of Education (Secretary) intends to repay to
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Education, the State
educational agency (SEA), an amount equal to 75 percent of the $210,000
recovered by the U.S. Department of Education (Department) as a result
of a final audit determination. This notice describes the SEA's plan,
submitted on behalf of the Philadelphia School District, the local
educational agency (LEA), for the use of the repaid funds and the terms
and conditions under which the Secretary intends to make those funds
available. The notice invites comments on the proposed grantback.
DATES: All comments must be received on or before July 7, 1995.
ADDRESSES: Comments concerning the grantback should be addressed to
Mary Jean LeTendre, Director, Compensatory Education Programs, Office
of Elementary and Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education,
600 Independence Avenue SW (Portals Building, Room 4400), Washington,
D.C. 20202-6132.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: S. Colene Nelson, U.S. Department of
Education, 600 Independence Avenue SW (Portals Building, Room 4400),
Washington, D.C. 20202-6132. Telephone: (202) 260-0979. Individuals who
use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 between 8 a.m. and 8
p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. Background
The Department has recovered $210,000 from the SEA in satisfaction
of claims arising from an audit of the LEA covering fiscal year (FY)
1987. The claims involved the SEA's administration of Chapter 1 of the
Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 (Chapter 1, ECIA),
a program that provided financial assistance to State and local
agencies to address the special educational needs of educationally
deprived children in areas with high concentrations of children from
low-income families.
Specifically, the auditors found that for the period July 1, 1986
through March 18, 1987, the LEA's Office of Planning, Research and
Evaluation (OPRE) prorated staff did not maintain time and effort
reports properly to support $604,611 of allocable charges under Chapter
1. Alternative documentation in the form of sign-in sheets and
evaluation reports was reviewed by the auditors and also found to be
inadequate for allocating OPRE salaries to Chapter 1 because it did not
demonstrate the actual time that prorated staff spent on Chapter 1
activities. The auditors therefore questioned $604,611 of salaries,
fringe benefits, and indirect costs.
On March 19, 1987, the LEA implemented a time and effort reporting
system to be used by the OPRE staff. However, the auditors found that
for the period March 19, 1987 through June 30, 1987, the time and
effort reports maintained by OPRE-prorated staff did not support the
full amount of Chapter 1 claims submitted by the LEA. The auditors
therefore questioned an additional $20,066 improperly charged to the
Chapter 1 program for salaries, fringe benefits, and indirect costs for
the remainder period of time. The auditors recommended a total refund
to the Department in the amount of $624,677 for the first finding.
In a second finding, the auditors found that the LEA failed to
retain documentation supporting student eligibility for the Chapter 1
Reading and English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) projects.
Therefore, the teachers' salaries and fringe benefits charged to the
Chapter 1 program for the Reading and ESOL projects during the period
July 1, 1986 through June 30, 1987 were unsupported. As a result, the
auditors identified $137,661 of Chapter 1 salaries, fringe benefits,
and indirect costs charged to the Chapter 1 program, for the Reading
and ESOL teachers, for [[Page 30077]] which student eligibility
documentation could not be located.
Based on these two findings, the Assistant Secretary for Elementary
and Secondary Education (Assistant Secretary) issued a final
determination on March 29, 1991, that concluded that salaries, fringe
benefits, and indirect costs charged to the Chapter 1 program were
unsupported or incorrectly calculated. The determination required a
refund totaling $762,338.
The SEA appealed the final determination of the Assistant Secretary
through the Office of Administrative Law Judges. Review of additional
documentation submitted during this period of appeal and negotiations
between the school district and the Department resulted in an order of
dismissal issued on April 15, 1992, by the Department settling the
audit at $210,000 in questioned costs. Subsequently, on June 4, 1992,
the LEA submitted a check for $210,000.
B. Authority for Awarding a Grantback
Section 459(a) of GEPA, 20 U.S.C. 1234h(a), provides that whenever
the Secretary has recovered program funds following a final audit
determination, the Secretary may consider those funds to be additional
funds available for the program and may arrange to repay to the SEA or
LEA affected by the determination an amount not to exceed 75 percent of
the recovered funds. The Secretary may enter into this grantback
arrangement if the Secretary determines that--
(1) Practices or procedures of the SEA or LEA that resulted in the
audit determination have been corrected, and the SEA or LEA is, in all
other respects, in compliance with the requirements of the applicable
program;
(2) SEA has submitted to the Secretary a plan for the use of the
funds to be awarded under the grantback arrangement that meets the
requirements of the program, and, to the extent possible, benefits the
population that was affected by the failure to comply or by the
misexpenditures that resulted in the audit exception; and
(3) Use of funds to be awarded under the grantback arrangement in
accordance with the SEA's plan would serve to achieve the purposes of
the program under which the funds were originally granted.
C. Plan for Use of Funds Awarded Under a Grantback Arrangement
Pursuant to section 459(a)(2) of GEPA, the SEA has applied for a
grantback of $157,500--75 percent of the principal amount recovered by
the Department--and has submitted a plan on behalf of the LEA for use
of the grantback funds to meet the special educational needs of
educationally deprived children in programs administered under Chapter
1, ESEA (20 U.S.C. 2701 et seq. (1988)).
According to the plan, the LEA will use the grantback funds under
Chapter 1 to provide six weeks of summer kindergarten to be held at
eight schoolwide project sites, two classes per site for a total of 16
classrooms. Participating teachers will attend one planning meeting (2
hours) and a full day of staff development (5 hours) in June in
preparation for the program that will begin for students on July 5 and
end on August 15, 1995. The participating schools will be selected
based on the following two factors: (1) A high concentration of
students about to enter first grade who have not had a kindergarten
experience, and (2) a high concentration of poverty. The Office of
Accountability and Assessment will identify the targeted schools. If
space is available, children who entered kindergarten after January
1995 will also be included. Teachers and classroom assistants will
telephone parents to keep attendance high.
Each class will be staffed by a teacher and a classroom assistant.
The teacher-student ratio will be one to fifteen. The standardized
kindergarten curriculum for the LEA will be used as the basis for
instruction. Schools will be invited to pilot some special materials to
increase hands-on interactive, developmentally appropriate instruction.
These materials will be selected by the principal and teachers at the
school to coordinate with the instructional model in use at the school.
For the sixth week, the first grade teachers to whom the students have
been assigned will attend and work with the students. The Early Primary
Progress Report (EPPR), a developmentally appropriate kindergarten
checklist, will be administered to each participant at the completion
of the summer program. Children will be rated as competent, making
progress, or making improvement. The results will be summarized to
determine attainment of objectives for each class and the program as a
whole.
Also, the LEA staff, in consultation with nonpublic school
authorities and parents of Chapter 1 students, decided to allocate
grantback funds to support summer professional development for 20
teachers of Chapter 1 students, in order to provide these teachers with
an opportunity to focus on the needs of the Chapter 1 children they
teach and to align the regular education program with Chapter 1 support
activities in their schools. Twenty nonpublic schools with the highest
concentrations of Chapter 1 program students will be selected for
participation. Attendance will be recorded at each staff development
session and participating teachers will complete a workshop evaluation
survey at the end of the two-week session.
D. The Secretary's Determinations
The Secretary has carefully reviewed the plan submitted by the SEA.
Based upon that review, the Secretary has determined that the
conditions under section 459 of GEPA have been met. These
determinations are based upon the best information available to the
Secretary at the present time. If this information is not accurate or
complete, the Secretary may take appropriate administrative action. In
finding that the conditions of section 459 of GEPA have been met, the
Secretary makes no determination concerning any pending audit
recommendations or final audit determinations.
E. Notice of the Secretary's Intent To Enter Into a Grantback
Arrangement
Section 459(d) of GEPA requires that, at least 30 days before
entering into an arrangement to award funds under a grantback, the
Secretary must publish in the Federal Register a notice of intent to do
so, and the terms and conditions under which payment will be made.
In accordance with section 459(d) of GEPA, notice is hereby given
that the Secretary intends to make funds available to the SEA under a
grantback arrangement. The grantback award would be in the amount of
$157,500.
F. Terms and Conditions Under Which Payments Under a Grantback
Arrangement Would Be Made
The SEA and LEA agree to comply with the following terms and
conditions under which payment under a grantback arrangement would be
made:
(1) The funds awarded under the grantback must be spent in
accordance with--
(a) All applicable statutory and regulatory requirements;
(b) The plan that the SEA submitted and any amendments to that plan
that are approved in advance by the Secretary; and
(c) The budget that was submitted with the plan and any amendments
to the budget that are approved in advance by the Secretary.
(2) All funds received under the grantback arrangement must be
obligated by September 30, 1995, in accordance with section 459(c) of
GEPA and the SEA's plan. [[Page 30078]]
(3) The SEA, on behalf of the LEA, will, not later than December
31, 1995, submit a report to the Secretary that--
(a) Indicates that the funds awarded under the grantback have been
spent in accordance with the proposed plan and approved budget; and
(b) Describes the results and effectiveness of the project for
which the funds were spent.
(4) Separate accounting records must be maintained documenting the
expenditures of funds awarded under the grantback arrangement.
Dated: June 1, 1995.
Thomas W. Payzant,
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.010, Educationally
Deprived Children--Local Educational Agencies)
[FR Doc. 95-13850 Filed 6-6-95; 8:45 am]
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